ProShares ETF Targets Bitcoin Selloff

Ava Labs President John Wu argues he hopes customers are able to get out of Celsius account freeze. Investors who have turned bearish on Bitcoin in light of its recent selloff will be able to take advantage of a new exchange-traded fund launching on Tuesday. The ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which will trade under the ticker symbol BITI, is designed to address the challenge of acquiring short exposure to the world’s largest cryptocurrency, which can be onerous and expensive for many investors.

BITI, which seeks to obtain exposure through bitcoin futures contracts, will track the opposite performance of the S&P CME Bitcoin Futures Index each day. The launch comes as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have struggled in sympathy with the broader stock market, which is contending with scorching-hot inflation.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency is currently trading around $20,000 per coin on Monday, well off its 52-week high of $68,990.90 hit last year, after briefly falling to a 52-week low of $17,601.58 per coin over the weekend. “As recent times have shown, bitcoin can drop in value,” ProShares CEO Michael Sapir said in a statement. “BITI affords investors who believe that the price of bitcoin will drop with an opportunity to potentially profit or to hedge their cryptocurrency holdings.”

ProShares will also launch BITIX on Tuesday, a mutual fund with the same investment objective as BITI. “With the additions of BITI and BITIX, ProShares and ProFunds will be the only fund families in the U.S. offering funds that allow investors to express their view on the direction of bitcoin — no matter whether they believe the price will go up or down,” Sapir added.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
BITO	PROSHARES TRUST BITCOIN STRATEGY ETF	12.95	+0.23	+1.81%
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The launch of BITI and BITIX comes after ProShares launched BITO, the first U.S. bitcoin-linked ETF, in October 2021, which attracted more than $1 billion in assets from the public in just two days. The firm also launched the first bitcoin-linked mutual fund, BTCFX, in July 2021. ProShares, which offers one of the largest lineups of ETFs, manages more than $50 billion in assets in partnership with its affiliates.

By Lucas Manfredi

Eight months after establishing the first U.S. bitcoin futures ETF, ProShares plans to launch the first short bitcoin-linked ETF on Tuesday in the U.S., the provider of investment products announced Monday. The ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy, which will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BITI, is designed to give investors a way to profit from declines in the price of the cryptocurrency. It will have an expense ratio of 0.95%.

Bitcoin fell to new a new 2022 low over the weekend of $17,601.58, according to Coin Metrics, after six months of declines amid the broader sell-off in risk assets. “As recent times have shown, bitcoin can drop in value,” ProShares CEO Michael Sapir said in a news release Monday. “BITI affords investors who believe that the price of bitcoin will drop with an opportunity to potentially profit or to hedge their cryptocurrency holdings. BITI enables investors to conveniently obtain short exposure to bitcoin through buying an ETF in a traditional brokerage account.”

BITI will be the first ETF of its kind in the U.S. Horizons ETFs has a short bitcoin ETF listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. ProShares said BITI is designed to deliver the opposite of the performance of the S&P CME Bitcoin Futures Index and that it seeks to obtain exposure through bitcoin futures contracts. How well-timed the launch is remains to be seen. Markets remain fraught with uncertainty as investors await next steps from the Federal Reserve and signs of peaking inflation, but many are still speculating about the crypto market being at or near a bottom.

On Monday, bitcoin sat about 70% from its all-time high, which it hit in early November just a couple weeks after ProShares launched the Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO). Bitcoin quickly reversed lower, and has been falling since then.